(‘mosses’ are ‘small flowerless plants’ that typically grow in dense green clumps or mats, often in ‘damp’ or ‘shady’ locations)
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(the individual plants are usually composed of simple leaves that are generally only one-cell thick, attached to a stem that may be branched or unbranched and has only a limited role in conducting water + ‘nutrients’)
(although some species have ‘conducting tissues’, these are generally poorly developed and structurally different from similar tissue found in vascular plants)
(‘mosses’ do not have seeds and after fertilisation develop sporophytes with unbranched stalks topped with single capsules containing ‘spores’)
They are typically 0.2–10 cm (0.1–3.9 in) tall, though some species are much larger.
Dawsonia, the tallest moss in the world, can grow to 50 cm (20 in) in height.
Mosses are commonly confused with lichens, hornworts, and liverworts.
Lichens may superficially look like mosses, and have common names that include the word “moss” (e.g., “reindeer moss” or “iceland moss”), but are not related to mosses.
Mosses used to be grouped together with the hornworts and liverworts as “non-vascular” plants in the former division “bryophytes”, all of them having the haploid gametophyte generation as the dominant phase of the life cycle.
This contrasts with the pattern in all vascular plants (seed plants and pteridophytes), where the diploid sporophyte generation is dominant.
Mosses are now classified on their own as the division Bryophyta.
There are approximately 12,000 species.
(the main commercial significance of ‘mosses’ is as the main constituent of peat (mostly the genus sphagnum), although they are also used for decorative purposes, such as in ‘gardens’ + in the ‘florist trade’)
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(traditional uses of ‘mosses’ included as ‘insulation’ and for the ability to absorb liquids up to 20 times their ‘weight’)
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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
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